British international athlete Verity Ockenden writes about a traumatic experience during a recent training session that highlights the safety issues female athletes still face.
As I write this column on November 11, reminders are everywhere Instagram: for random scrolling and reading The Republicthe last title of; Today marks one year since the death of Italian student Giulia Cecchettin at the hands of her partner, one year since 113 more femicides took place in my country.
My tapes repeat Saoirse Ronan’s viral videos reminding Paul Mescal that self-defense is something girls should always think about I was followed in the dark by a cyclist a few years ago, and once the driver swerved at me for a laugh before running off again, but I almost forgot all about it until saturday.
When I say forgotten, what I really mean is that I internalized all the subsequent behaviors I adopted after that so that they became second nature, and I no longer actively thought about the precautions I took while running. : I was lucky enough to stick to daylight hours, not wearing headphones and automatically changing sides of the road to give myself proper clearance to passing strangers.
I had normalized all this, was so familiar with the routes I ran every day that I didn’t panic when I passed a local farmer with his shotgun slung over his shoulder, or a pack of goats and dogs. We all knew and respected each other, just going about our business, our jobs.
I went on a long run for an hour and thirty minutes on Saturday. I waited for the fog to clear before heading out. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. My husband asked if I was going to take my phone with me. and I said I wouldn’t because I found it too heavy and distracting when running at a faster pace.
I told him the route I planned to take and left without a second thought, just my watch on my wrist and the gel in my pocket. I was enjoying myself, excited to keep my pace longer this week and feeling quietly confident despite the burn with 15 minutes to go.
I had barely seen a soul all morning as I rattled down country lanes that stretched for miles, so I jumped in surprise when a horn sounded behind me. Maybe it was someone I knew, or a “friendly encouragement.” I didn’t notice, though, when the driver turned and turned the car in front of me and thought they were lost.
They slowly walked up to me with the window rolled down and said “ciao bella” as they passed. This kind of comment always made my skin crawl, but it was nothing I hadn’t heard before, so I wrote it off and carried on. seconds later I heard the sound of the engine revving behind me and a vague screeching as he passed by and faster this time and I lost my cool. I threw my hands up in frustration and definitely told him to “get off and leave me alone”.
Verity Ockenden (on the run)
It was a red flag for the bull and the man swerved his car again, this time driving straight at me. We had reached a fork in the road and I feigned a left turn before doubling back behind the car and going right, shouting as loud as I could to summon any kind of help, even though I knew there would be very few people within earshot;
I am very lucky that at that moment another motorist happened to be good enough to stop and watch the scene from a distance.I ran towards them and my aggressor drove off. I asked for a lift home as I was in no condition to continue running and was afraid the person might come back.
Reflecting on the incident, I’ve obviously given a lot of thought to how to better protect myself in the future and what I could have done differently.From now on, I’m willing to load up on both my phone and pepper spray, invest some time in practicing self-defense techniques, and seek out company if possible. :
Being well-prepared to respond to an attack doesn’t stop one from happening, and as much as I love running with friends, relying on strength in numbers for your own safety doesn’t solve the problem at its root either.
One of the first things I said to the person who drove me home after the attack on Saturday was, The sad part of the news I’ve read since then is that the promise made by the Italian government to organize sex education classes in Italian schools in an attempt to eradicate gender-based violence from its societal roots has not yet been put into action . Since then, there has also been a significant increase in emergency calls made by women fearing for their safety.
Hannah Nuttall and Verity Ockenden (Getty)
Even though I got away unscathed this time and won’t let my unfortunate experiences stop me from doing what I love, I’m angry that what was taken away from me is my freedom and confidence what I see as my basic right is actually a privilege that doesn’t even exist in some societies, like Afghanistan, where women are currently forbidden to even talk about their everyday experiences, much less about them one counting the run.
Running is something that usually makes me feel good both mentally and physically, and that’s something I think everyone deserves to experience, but it’s much less empowering no matter how much you are fit and fast when someone uses it as an opportunity to make you completely powerless.
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